citizen of the United States, residing at Tampa, in the county of Hillsboro and State of Florida, haveinvented certain new and useful Improvements in Protectors for Buoys, of which the following is a specification.

This invention relates to attachment-s for buoys to protect them by preventing birds from alighting thereon, and has for one of its objects to provide a simply constructed device which may be attached to buoys of various forms and sizes.

Much damage and annoyance has heretofore been experienced from the tendency of sea birds to alight upon buoys and thereby damaging the paint thereon and thus changing the color, so that the utility of the buoy is materially depreciated, and the principal object of the present invention is to provide an attachment which will efiectually prevent birds from alighting upon-the buoy, while at the same time not interfering with its efficiency or changing its appearance.

The improved device may be applied to buoys of various forms and sizes without material structural change either in the buoy or in the attachment, and for the purpose of illustration the improved device is shown applied to a conventional buoy, and in the drawings employed to illustrate the preferred embodiment of the invention, Figure 1 is a plan view of the improved device applied; Fig. 2 is a section on the line 2-2 of Fig. 1; Fig. 3 is a side elevation, on a reduced scale, of the improved' device applied; Fig. 4 is a plan View, enlarged, of a portion of the improved device, illustrating the manner of constructing the spurs.

Corresponding and like parts are referred to in the following description and indicated in all the views of the drawings by the same reference characters.

The improved device is preferably constructed from a single plate of sheet metal, represented as a whole at 10, preferably circular, and also with the margin 11 rolled around a supporting wire. At its center the member 10 is provided with an opening, indicated at 12, through which extends a holding device, preferably the bolt 13 at the upper end of the buoy. This bolt 13 is usually in the form of an eye bolt, as shown, which is employed when setting the buoy or removing it from its location, and in the improved device this eye bolt is preferably utilized to hold the attachment, as shown in Fig. 8.

The plate or body 10 is provided with numerous V-shaped spurs 14 which are spaced at short intervals and extended at right angles to the upper surface of the plate, the points of the spurs being thus located at substantially the same distance apart over the entire surface of the plate. The spurs are preferably formed by producing N-shaped clefts in the plate, as represented in Fig. 45, whereby two V-shaped tongues are produced which are then bent up at right angles to the body of the plate. By this means the spurs are formed without waste, as no portion of the plate is cut out in producing the spurs. The general upper surface of the plate will be convex, while the under surface of the plate is correspondingly concave, so that the rim 11 is slightly lower than the center of the plate, to provide effectually for drainage. By this means it will be obvious that birds cannot find a foothold upon the buoy, and the latter will therefore be effectually protected and all injury to the paint on the buoy prevented.

The improved device may be constructed of any required size and any suitable material, but will preferably be of sheet metal which will effectually resist corrosion from sea water, and may be galvanized, painted, or otherwise protected.

Having thus described the invention, what is claimed as new is:

1. A protector for buoys comprising a plate having a convex upper face and a concaved lower face and provided with a strengthening member at the rim, and a plurality of spurs spaced apart at short intervals and bent up from the body of the plate.

2. A protector for buoys comprising a plate having a convex upper face and a con- In testimony whereof, I afiix my signacaved lower face and provided with a ture in presence of two Witnesses. strengthening member at the rim, and a plu- HARRY G. WARNER. [In s.] rality of N shaped clefts in the plate with Witnesses:

the material released thereby bent at right VICTOR H. KNIGHT,

angles to the plate to form V shaped spurs. MINNE B. COVODE.

Copies of this patent may be obtained for five cents each, by addressing the Commissioner of Patents, Washington, D. G.